Iowa Recruiting: This Is An Alarming Thought

The problem is the coach, and the boring, stale, lifeless brand that is Iowa Football. No amount of facility upgrades are going to help get recruits. The only ones we will get are those that have no other offers, or very few offers. Good recruits simply don't want anything to do with this mess. that is why the entire staff must go now. Until this happens we will continue to fall. We might get the occasional O-line recruit that is good, but it doesn't matter because we need top talent at the skill positions, and we will never get it with this staff.
 
KF doesn't believe in recruiting the top Kids. He only wants his style of players that are diamond in the rough. He would take 2 stars any day over a whole class of 4 stars.

It isn't the school, it's the coach and recruiting styles. I have seen garbage schools get into the Top 25 for recruiting.
 
Epic Fail!! The facilities weren't available for any use until late October. There's still some finish work to be done. The new facility brings Iowa back to a level playing field - most of the Big Ten schools opened new swanky football centers several years ago. Iowa's old facilities were not good. The bubble practice facility impressed very few recruits these last half dozen years. Any benefit from the new football center will be reflected in recruiting starting next year. Show them pictures....really? Gosh that Penthouse is ok but everybody else greets us with live babes. There's been dozens of articles about college recruiting and what's important to todays college recruits. These swanky facilities - indoor temperature controlled practice fields, state of the art weight rooms, fancy/roomy locker areas, huge theatre like video centers, private meeting rooms, gaming rooms, deluxe player lounge areas, etc. have been ranked by a majority of recruits as the number one factor when deciding on a school. Academics was a distant second. Show them pictures!! Cyclown trolls!!
 
I dont think the facilities are going to overcome the product on the field. Its got to be hard to sell a punt heavy offense to 4* and 5* talent.
.
These talented kids dont want to play ball control.

Iowa can talk about players in the NFL all they want but its really only for linemen and defensive players. Iowa will not turn the corner until they can convince offensive playmakers that Iowa will get them the ball and let them do their thing. Right now Iowa would not know what to do with a star WR or QB. Heck isnt that what happened last year?
 
BirdsOfPrey said:
Epic Fail!! The facilities weren't available for any use until late October. There's still some finish work to be done. The new facility brings Iowa back to a level playing field - most of the Big Ten schools opened new swanky football centers several years ago. Iowa's old facilities were not good. The bubble practice facility impressed very few recruits these last half dozen years. Any benefit from the new football center will be reflected in recruiting starting next year. Show them pictures....really? Gosh that Penthouse is ok but everybody else greets us with live babes. There's been dozens of articles about college recruiting and what's important to todays college recruits. These swanky facilities - indoor temperature controlled practice fields, state of the art weight rooms, fancy/roomy locker areas, huge theatre like video centers, private meeting rooms, gaming rooms, deluxe player lounge areas, etc. have been ranked by a majority of recruits as the number one factor when deciding on a school. Academics was a distant second. Show them pictures!! Cyclown trolls!!
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Anybody who has been around here any length time knows I'm not a troll. So you don't think in the recruiting process 1-2 yrs ago, they weren't telling recruits about facilities that were coming. The fact that you think they just waited until the facilities were done is hilarious. What does the U do when they take on any new expensive endeavor, they put out the designs to all the local media for people to see. Not sure where you live, but I live in IC Area and work at the U, they promote what they are building well in advance of being finished. I suspect the same when when trying to sway recruits. Why wouldn't they mention new facilities. If they didn't, that would be a mistake an alarming in itself.
 
MelroseHawkins said:
In the past several years Iowa has poured in millions of $$ to upgrade football facilities. Gary Dinardo and others have stated that Iowa has some of the best, if not the best (Dinardo's opinion) football facilities in the BIG. What is an alarming thought and a bit disconcerting, is that this has not resulted in better recruiting for Iowa. This is supposed to boost recruiting and level the playing field. This does not bode well for Iowa and is not a good sign at all.

Iowa still competes with getting mostly 3 * talent along with the middle of the pack BIG teams and MAC level teams. What card does Iowa have left to play when courting a recruit. Getting players to the NFL might be the only card they really have left to play, but often those players are the interior linemen or TE.

We've had the facilities or promise of the facilities in place now a couple years and not seeing the benefits in the recruiting which was the plan. I don't know what the answer is going forward with recruiting.

When Iowa had some of it's most solid recruiting years, it's been when Mich St, Notre Dame, Illinois was down. That is not the case anymore as Mich St & Notre Dame are healthy. It's much more difficult for Iowa to recruit that Chicago/Ill area they once were successful in. Ugh!
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There is no excuse for a team like Iowa to struggle playing the likes of UNI or any school in their division let alone lose to them. I am going to bet that Illinois St will waltz out of Kinnick with a victory next year. No excuse. We should be recruiting and coaching our athletes to steam roll that kind of competition. If we can't ,then we need to hire a coach from those schools because its obvious they are doing much more with much less than Iowas coaches. Those coaches are hungry much like Ferentz when he was young. Now he is just a fat cat making 4 mil top 10 paid coach in the land=joke
 
uihawk82 said:
do you see all the true and redshirt freshman who are starting and playing significant time in bowl games for top ranked teams, for SEC and PAC 12 teams. Yet Iowa doesnt have hardly any or play them.

This points to two problems 1) KF doesnt play young players and recruits know this so why come here and try to make your mark in 3 years and/or 2) because of the vicious recruiting cycle we are not getting good enough players to play as true or RS freshman.

It could be a two edged sword but I say # 1 is a turn off for skill position players. There are so many great running backs tearing it up as true freshman it makes me sick, football fan wise.

Why cant we get a stud running back and play him right away, the heck with missing an occasional assignment if he avgs 5+ yards per carry. Same with receivers, corners (like Desmond King who did it), safeties, QBs

KF needs to use his young players to find out what he has instead of worrying about a missed block or a fumble since we are barely winning half our games.
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This x100000

You are crazy to think the fact that Iowa doesn't play many true freshman at skill positions isn't hurting us on the recruiting trail. We only play them out of injury, or defections of the program and we're low on numbers. When was the last true freshman to receive significant minutes at WR? Douglas???? Keenan Davis wasn't RS, but he barely played his first two years. Albeit he had some good WR in front of him, but what type of decent recruit wants to come in and sit for two years???? Especially to burn their RS on special teams?

We have OL that get the top awards in college football, they pretty much all make it to NFL camps, and yet we cannot land a decent RB???? Why is that? I think it has more to do with KF style of play and coaching. Again, what star RB wants to come here and sit the bench? Or focus most of their time on learning how to block (albeit very important) and won't play until they've got that ONE aspect down.

And forget about it if you make a mistake and are not one of KF favorites (Mark and Jake made plenty of mistakes this year, and yet they continued to see a majority of the snaps). MW fumbles, keeps playing. Wadley fumbles, and he's taken out immediately.

The talent does not want to come to Iowa City and play this style of football. We've got almost two decades of data to show this. Wisconsin recruits around the same level or worse than us, yet they still manage to pull in the talent at the positions they are known for. OL, RB, and DL. They totally take advantage of their system.

What do we do?
 
The overall culture is tired and stale and needs an overhaul this isn't the 80's anymore. I for one am hoping for a pro-athletic president. There is so much behind the scene politics going on I do not have a clue how that is going to turn out. If we get the "right" president it trickles down from there and then we can start talking about changing the culture.
 
"Anybody who has been around here any length time knows I'm not a troll. So you don't think in the recruiting process 1-2 yrs ago, they weren't telling recruits about facilities that were coming. The fact that you think they just waited until the facilities were done is hilarious. What does the U do when they take on any new expensive endeavor, they put out the designs to all the local media for people to see. Not sure where you live, but I live in IC Area and work at the U, they promote what they are building well in advance of being finished. I suspect the same when when trying to sway recruits. Why wouldn't they mention new facilities. If they didn't, that would be a mistake an alarming in itself."

I live here too. I heard they were building it. I saw an artist's rendition and heard about the plans. I'm sure they told guys about the future facility and promoted it extensively. I just think it had no impact on recruiting up to this point and that next year will be the year I'd expect to see measurable gains in recruiiting. These generation me/now recruits don't strike me as visionary, carefully considering abstract & future events etc. The wow factor begins for the recruits that arrive on campus and tour the complex. Maybe it will have no effect. Maybe we'll sign a dozen 5 star guys....next year is when we'll know that answer and anything else is speculation, hating etc.
 
Sparky said:
Who here would want to play for Ferentz if you had a better option?

You can't use Twitter to talk about how awesome Iowa is.
He blocks you from the media.
He benches you if you make one mistake.
He doesn't play the best players.
He doesn't know what a fullback is.
He doesn't know how to prepare players for a fake punt.
He spends more time fund raising than preparing for games.
He thinks Davis is a good coach.
He favors certain players over others when the other players are better.

At least this is what I read around the boards.
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This statement alone is alarming. When he mention that he needed to spend more time in the office, I wondered who is the AD, Barta or Ferentz. If he does not want to do this anymore, he should've checked out a long time ago.
 
BirdsOfPrey said:
"Anybody who has been around here any length time knows I'm not a troll. So you don't think in the recruiting process 1-2 yrs ago, they weren't telling recruits about facilities that were coming. The fact that you think they just waited until the facilities were done is hilarious. What does the U do when they take on any new expensive endeavor, they put out the designs to all the local media for people to see. Not sure where you live, but I live in IC Area and work at the U, they promote what they are building well in advance of being finished. I suspect the same when when trying to sway recruits. Why wouldn't they mention new facilities. If they didn't, that would be a mistake an alarming in itself."

I live here too. I heard they were building it. I saw an artist's rendition and heard about the plans. I'm sure they told guys about the future facility and promoted it extensively. I just think it had no impact on recruiting up to this point and that next year will be the year I'd expect to see measurable gains in recruiiting. These generation me/now recruits don't strike me as visionary, carefully considering abstract & future events etc. The wow factor begins for the recruits that arrive on campus and tour the complex. Maybe it will have no effect. Maybe we'll sign a dozen 5 star guys....next year is when we'll know that answer and anything else is speculation, hating etc.
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I'll give you that. I don't disagree with anything you stated above. It was the "artist's rendition" I was referring to instead of showing photos. I just couldn't think of the right word or phrasing. I'm sure they flashed it by them & explained the facilities plan. But, I agree, not going to do much until they are on campus to see the campus, area and town. It just worries me because we've had upgrades and a new renovation at Kinnick and I don't think we gained any advantage in the recruiting trail. But, also at the same time they mentioned they wouldn't be hitting Florida or Texas as hard. Hopefully they changed that tune.
 
MelroseHawkins said:
In the past several years Iowa has poured in millions of $$ to upgrade football facilities. Gary Dinardo and others have stated that Iowa has some of the best, if not the best (Dinardo's opinion) football facilities in the BIG. What is an alarming thought and a bit disconcerting, is that this has not resulted in better recruiting for Iowa. This is supposed to boost recruiting and level the playing field. This does not bode well for Iowa and is not a good sign at all.

Iowa still competes with getting mostly 3 * talent along with the middle of the pack BIG teams and MAC level teams. What card does Iowa have left to play when courting a recruit. Getting players to the NFL might be the only card they really have left to play, but often those players are the interior linemen or TE.

We've had the facilities or promise of the facilities in place now a couple years and not seeing the benefits in the recruiting which was the plan. I don't know what the answer is going forward with recruiting.

When Iowa had some of it's most solid recruiting years, it's been when Mich St, Notre Dame, Illinois was down. That is not the case anymore as Mich St & Notre Dame are healthy. It's much more difficult for Iowa to recruit that Chicago/Ill area they once were successful in. Ugh!
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I would take issue with you saying often the guys that go pro are TEs or interior linemen. That is true, to be sure. But I think you can make the case that the only spots you cannot hope to go pro from Iowa are WR, QB and RB. We have had plenty of DBs, LBs, DTs and even DEs from defense, as well as OL and TE on offense. We have also had punters and place kickers.

I agree with most of the rest of your post, though.
 
Thawki said:
I would take issue with you saying often the guys that go pro are TEs or interior linemen. That is true, to be sure. But I think you can make the case that the only spots you cannot hope to go pro from Iowa are WR, QB and RB. We have had plenty of DBs, LBs, DTs and even DEs from defense, as well as OL and TE on offense. We have also had punters and place kickers.

I agree with most of the rest of your post, though.
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Let's see. You said "go pro" and not "go to the NFL". So here's a list of running backs, wide receivers and quarterbacks: Shonn Greene, Jewel Hampton (yeah, didn't finish at Iowa but did start there), Ricki Stanzi (didn't play much but was making the $$$), Drew Tate, Albert Young, Brad Banks, Kahlil Hill, CJ Jones, Kevin Kasper. Tim Dodge and Jason Manson played in the Arena League.

Oh, wait. I guess these guys "cannot hope to go pro".
 
In 20 years Fry had a total of 17 skill position players on the offensive side of the ball (QB, RB, WR) drafted by the NFL. In 16 years Ferentz has had 6 players drafted by the NFL at those same positions.........Betts, Greene, McNutt, Stanzi, Hill, and Kasper. You have to go back to 2009 to find any of these being higher than a 5th round pick (Greene 3rd round).

I am not including the watered down options of free agents, Canadian pros, or Arena League as I don't have the interest to find that info on either coach's behalf. I think enough can be taken from the above comparison to make the point some are tying to make about quality and quantity at offensive skill positions during the Ferentz era.
 
Well now that we are where we are whats next? It could be worse. I'm almost surprised that some of the kids in this recruiting class hadn't jumped ship. Yet it sounds like they are all staying and should even add 2 or 3 more. Of course it's not a top 20 class like we'd all like but I do like 2 things about it. The Oline group, they look to be pretty good. I like the potential there. Also the QBs. I think between those two guys one of em will emerge and be pretty darn good. And to add one more maybe that FL rb Higdon we got just maybe he can be a stud. He had quite the impressive list of schools after him... So yes the program is down now but from the glass half full side of things I'm going to give this class a chance and hope CJ can get the team off to a hot start next year..
 
turfpest said:
This statement alone is alarming. When he mention that he needed to spend more time in the office, I wondered who is the AD, Barta or Ferentz. If he does not want to do this anymore, he should've checked out a long time ago.
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KF effectively retired after the 2010 season. He just didn't bother to tell anybody. Now that he has fessed up, what? He expects us fans to give him a mulligan for that trash? Kirk Ferentz's snarky behavior, condescending attitude and dog crap football teams are going to turn Iowa fans opinion of him into hatred.
 
ohhawk said:
In 20 years Fry had a total of 17 skill position players on the offensive side of the ball (QB, RB, WR) drafted by the NFL. In 16 years Ferentz has had 6 players drafted by the NFL at those same positions.........Betts, Greene, McNutt, Stanzi, Hill, and Kasper. You have to go back to 2009 to find any of these being higher than a 5th round pick (Greene 3rd round).

I am not including the watered down options of free agents, Canadian pros, or Arena League as I don't have the interest to find that info on either coach's behalf. I think enough can be taken from the above comparison to make the point some are tying to make about quality and quantity at offensive skill positions during the Ferentz era.
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Correct me if I'm wrong but Betts and Kasper were Hayden Fry recruits that Kirk inherited. You should adjust your numbers accordingly.
19 for Hayden Fry
4 for Kirk Ferentz
 
Knight78 said:
Let's see. You said "go pro" and not "go to the NFL". So here's a list of running backs, wide receivers and quarterbacks: Shonn Greene, Jewel Hampton (yeah, didn't finish at Iowa but did start there), Ricki Stanzi (didn't play much but was making the $$$), Drew Tate, Albert Young, Brad Banks, Kahlil Hill, CJ Jones, Kevin Kasper. Tim Dodge and Jason Manson played in the Arena League.

Oh, wait. I guess these guys "cannot hope to go pro".
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Clown shoes.
 
lightning1 said:
Correct me if I'm wrong but Betts and Kasper were Hayden Fry recruits that Kirk inherited. You should adjust your numbers accordingly.
19 for Hayden Fry
4 for Kirk Ferentz
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I was thinking the same thing. I thought might be going back a bit too far with those two.
 
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